wiped out by that public pain and humiliation, did someone else then dump you on tv? and then someone else? then you know, you know what it feels like tonight. to be grover norquist. >> right now, we are watching both sides start to make their move. >> holiday cheer and fiscal cliff fears. >> of course, we're talking about the -- >> fiscal cliff. >> it does cause uncertainty. >> there's a great uncertainty. >> there's always uncertainty. life is uncertain. >> i think it's more of a slope. republicans possibly maybe -- >> growing number of republicans. >> looking to make a deal. >> and they would like one pretty quick. >> some top republicans suggest they could shock horror. >> the mythical grover norquist. >> break with their sacred pledge. >> to grover norquist. ♪ another one bites the dust >> nobody's turning on me. >> i'm not obligated on the

pledge. >> nobody's turning on me. >> it is not about that pledge. >> nobody's turning on me. >> it really is about trying to solve problems. >> i'm sorry, that's just silly. >> grover norquist is not jesus. >> he can't burn down your house. >> we would highlight whose kept their commitment. >> this guy's a political lone shark. >> nobody's turning on me. >> i will violate the pledge. >> nobody's turning on me. ♪ >> with 36 days until the curve, republicans on fox news say their party is in chaos and disarray. >> republicans are in a shocking amount of disarray. the republican party has not developed an alternative idea set other than what mitt romney and paul ryan were campaigning on so it sort of by default has

become their opening negotiation situation. >> when we're trying to fig yut out the future of the country, they're attack lg grover norquist? >> here is what congressional republicans are saying about their signed pledge. to grover norquist. >> i'm not obligated on the pledge. i made tennesseeans aware, the only thing i'm honoring is the oath that i take when i'm sworn in this january. >> when i go to the con stech wents that have re-elected me. >> the pledge is for that congress. if i remember in congress in 1941, i would have signed a

declaration of war against japan. the world has changed. >> but grover norquist does not think this world has changed. for republicans, who signed his pledge. >> are you going to want to exact punishment on them in two year, what? >> two things. there have been some, the folks whose pictures you put up there, some have engaged in impure thoughts. they haven't actually voted for a tax increase. we could ask president bush how his second term went after he broke his pledge. did he damage the pledge or by breaking his pledge, he lost a second term for the presidency. >> and this morning, even fox and friends were getting all philosophical about till death do us part pledges. >> i think you get into really difficult situations in relationships in general when you make people sign on the

dotted line and then you crucify them if they decide to change their line. i'll bring it back to marriage. marriages don't work when one or both parties stand on both sides of the fence and say i'm not budging. then you get divorced. that's what happens. >> crystal, let me explain this being dumped thing to you because i know you've never -- >> it's happened once or twice. >> stop. you lost an election, so you have some sensation of what grover is going through. >> poor guy. i feel for him.

it is remarkable because he's had this pledge in place since 1986. george h.p. bush violated the pledge, it essentially led to newt gingrich and the contract for america and we have been living in this gingrich contract for america, grover norquist tea party state of the republican party since then and so far, they have only been engaging in what grover called impure thoughts, which i love that's how he thinks of it, but just the very fact they would openly question the pledge is to remarkable because essentially lowers tax rates is the only thing republicans have stood for in recent elections. >> cane was using this very cute trick that republicans first starting using. they started floating this thing about oh, that pledge was made for another congress. i didn't seen it again thr the election that i yus won a year ago or two weeks ago, whatever the case may be and so peter king didn't invent that. >> that's something that grover was rebuffed. you can opt out.

>> once you're in, that's it. >> yes. >> but look, the big good news for progressives here, there are two fundamental values that have driven the economic conversation for republicans in this era. one is deficit is the biggest problem. here we are with the cliff, the curve, whatever you want to call it and what do we find out? even republicans are warning they don't want to go over the cliff because guess what? just cutting the deficit without any regard to the rest of our priorities is a bad idea. it happens to be the heart of republican economic policy and the other thing about never raising taxes, guess what? we don't have the gdp to seniors ratio than we did 20 years ago, so if we're going to be serious about an ageing population, it means you can't stick to these fantasies. >> i remember two years ago on

the show, introducing him to the audience and explaining he's the most powerful republican in government and i had to do this long thing on who he is. and now, here he is in the center of this debate. let's listen to what the republicans are up against in the negotiations with the white house. jay carney indicated today what the president's stance is on income tax rates. >> i would say also that the president has made clear that he will not sign a bill that extends the bush era tax cuts for those making more than $250,000. he's made that clear. >> so, krystal, the rates go up. that's what it will consist of among other things. >> all right, unless of course they go over the cliff and they

don't have to vote to increase taxes and maybe they didn't violate the pledge. in grover's eyes, they would be violating the american. i think what carney's comments underscore is how strong of a hand the president has here. not only do they agree with the reality that it will be republicans fault and that republicans set up this whole situation and that he has that negotiation of going over the cliff and the rates go up for everyone if you do that. he's been very smart about positioning this, too, saying you guys, we all agree on extending existing tax rates. let's do that and then we can deal with this other piece. will i play lawyer for one second. the whole way that marginal rates work, they can benefit on 250,000. it is misleading to say it's 98% only. it's 100%.

because the first $250,000 you make, whether you make that much or more, benefits. if you look at the data, it's about a $12,000 cut under the plan for the middle class for people making the quarter million, so it's this crazy thing where i don't know if it's that rich people have a good day of massaging the rhetoric r or we don't take the time to debunk it, but if the obama middle class cuts go through, rich people will get the largest cuts, still. >> we saw the obama victory numbers in this election. but i think he's had a bigger victory than what those numbers indicate and that's in this cnn poll that comes up and it shows today how effective the president's leadership has been

on this tax issue because the country agrees with him and more people agree with him than voted for him on this particular issue. it's overwhelmingly in favor of the president's position on this and the republicans are reading that poll and their future is in that poll. >> and the republican party for too long has been driven by their primary electorate. they've been afraid of grover norquist and the tea party coming after them in primaries, but the more we see republicans coming out, reaching across the aisle, there are safety in numbers. so, it looks like there is going to be a genuine move to the center. >> here's what glover is hoping for, that we go off the cliff. then you go off without violating grover's quest.

what he needs is the claim his pledge still exists. >> these people are idealogues, but they're also power hungry. he's a washington guy, a lobbiest and wants to find a way out. >> thank you very much for joining me. >> coming up, warren buffett exposes the dirty little money secret of fellow rich guys, rush limbaugh and bill o'reilly and big news. chris christie is running and later, think about this. who is more christ like? the brave defender of christmas or the actor writer director, is bill o'reilly or ricky gervais more christlike? tweet us your answer and it will be in tonight's rewrite.

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tonight is the first episode of our new game show, who is more christlike? tonight, reverend pat robertson, bill o'reilly and ricky gervais. with the spark cash card from capital one, olaf gets great rewards for his small business! pizza! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card! [ pop! ]

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buffett insisted that slightly higher tax rates will in fact not deter the rich from becoming much richer. forget about the rich and ultra rich going on strike and stuffing their ample funds under their mattresses, if gas cap pal gains rates and ordinary income rates are increased, the ultra rich including me will forever pursue investment opportunities. none will say well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be. only in grover norquist's imagination does such a response exist. it's true. for ultra rich warren buffett and as pointed out previously, it is true for bill o'reilly and rush limbaugh. buffett supports a minimum 30% federal tax on incomes over 1 million and a minimum 35% tax rates on incomes over 10 million.

at the white house today, jay carney issued this challenge. >> the reality is closing loopholes and ending deductions as an alternative to raising rates on the top earners, those making over $250,000 sounds good, but you have to look at the proposal. math tells us that you can't get the balance you need without having rates be part of the equation. we haven't seen a realistic proposal that achieves that. >> joining me now, ezra klein. so now, warren buffett is to the left of the democratic party because to say it's a minimum income tax is to remove the

opportunity for certain kinds of tax deductions this those filers have that reduce their effective rates. he's arguing to put in technical terms, a kind of super alternative minimum tax. >> it should be no surprise that he does believe in the buffett tax. if you had a 35% tax rate for people making more than a million dollars, that is very high. if you're somebody like mitt romney or a hedge fund investors, you're paying about a 15% tax rate. your taxes overnight would more than double. that is huge. and one that buffett makes a

good case, would not really change your incentives to invest very much. the difference between you paying 15% or 35% on an investment opportunity, is not the difference between you making a profit and not making a profit. it is the deference between you making a 70% profit and an 85% profit. a lot of people still want to make a 75% profit. >> or in the norquist world, it's the ability to make a zero profit because if you can't make the 85% profit, you will refuse an accept a zero profit instead. that's the grover theory. >> we have had a much more extreme tax system in this country.

it's called the 1940s to roughly the 1980s, 97% in the eisenhower years and to go back to buffett's op-ed, he was offering people investment opportunities when the top marginal rate was 70% and they were taking it and getting rich. this was a period when we were growing very, very quickly and growth was shared when we made a lot of money and had a very, very progressive tax system, it was redibted to the middle class. they spent, invested and the country kept growing. we had much stronger growth in that period than in the period of low tax rates in the 2000s. >> ezra, grover norquist is on the ropes as we have never seen

him before and you're going to have to pardon me. i am going to indulge my desire to see every bit of video from him on the ropes. fox news today talking about tax reform and deductions. >> i'm not talking about a few deductions in h credits. they're talking about a trillion dollars worth. that's what the other team wants. if you do that, you've just killed tax reform for a generation. why? how do you ever get the rates down if you don't have the deductions and credits. >> so now, he's arguing against any kind of that stuff. >> from his perspective, he is right to do so. he sees the whole board.

he sees you know, create a carbon tax, you could get higher taxings on a more efficient system and people would be okay to do that and he sees here that if you use tax reform to raise revenues, you can't use it to lower rates and he is right. that's why the white house is saying in the clip you plays from carney earl yes, they are not very open to letting tax reform to be the only way we get new revenue. >> grover wants smaller government and he adopted the star of the beast strategy of. thank you for joining me. coming up, the republican party looks for ways to avoid having michele bachmann or anyone like her ever be a front-runner again for that party's presidential nomination. karen finney and david corn will join me on that. later, pat robertson thinks athiests are miserable and want christians to be unhappy. a very happy atheist will bring him wrong. i always wait until the last minute.

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as "time" approaches its person of the year, you can cast your vote at time.com where the ballot includes president obama and some redick louse long shots including a man named mitt romney. also on the ballot, malala, the pakistani schoolgirl shot because she became a public

advocate for the education of girls and women. at one point today, she was leading in the online ballots. vote early and often as they used to say in boston for mal . you can also vote for her as the last word of the year where the ballot as constructed by me has two people on it. malala is in the first position, the second goes to the person who made that anonymous video of mitt romney's 47% chat with his rich donors. no votes have been cast, but malala has a big lead since i personal intend to vote early and often for her as the last word person of the year.

coming up, in the rewrite, bill o'reilly, crazy pat robertson and ricky gervais in tonight's contest, who is more christlike? and next, republicans still can't face the fact that they lost because president obama is simply much better at campaigning and much better at governoring than they are. karen finney and david corn will join me coming up.

i think we have to be a bigger tent. >> in the spotlight tonight, the republican clown car needs a bigger circus tent. yesterday on fox, the first man to lose the presidency to barack obama tried to explain why a second republican has now lost the presidency to barack obama and like all republican explanations for losing the presidency to barack obama, it does not include the possibility that the best man won. that barack obama was an extraordinary presidential

candidate. twice. it does not include the possibility that barack obama could not be beaten by anyone. twice. john mccain could not admit that barack obama beat him, then mitt romney because president obama is a better candidate than they were and president obama is a better and wiser man of government than they could ever be. they say they need to sound -- and less crazy on women's issues, then they could win the electoral college in a landslide. >> obviously, we have to do immigration reform. there is no doubt whatsoever that the demographics are not on our side and we are going to have to give a much more positive agenda.

and as far as young women are concerned, absolutely. i don't think anybody like me, i can state my position on borgs, but other than that, leave the issue alone. >> you say leave the issue alone. you'd say freedom of choice is this. >> i would allow people to have those opinions and respect those positions. i'm proud of my pro-life opinion and record, but i respect your views. >> as republicans continue to access their second loss of the presidency in a row, they keep grasping at all kinds of straws instead of admitting they were up against a superior candidate in barack obama. the latest straw they're grasping at is the aims straw poll. it writes ames does more damage to the nominating process and endures and ensures that the

country's first view of the grand ole party's latest presidential crop is through a distorted lens. how distorted a lens? here's the winner of last year's ames straw poll. that followed a lead of terry brand stead, who told "the wall street journal" last week that it outlived its usefulness and completed those thoughts during a press conference today. >> i'm trying to look to the future and say let's come wup a better system that welcomes all the candidates. that gives all people from the state of iowa a chance to participate. a lot of people have had real questions about the way the straw poll thing has evolved and the straw poll aspect of it.

it's not representative. and clearly, the results have shown that in recent sims because the people who won the straw polls have not won the caucuses. >> in its 33-year history, only two winners have gone on to win both the iowa caucus and republican nomination. bob dole, when then lost and george w. bush. bush was the only ames winner to actually win the presidency. joining me now, karen finney and david corn. karen, what i'm hearing in the republican explanations for why they lost is a refusal to acknowledge who beat them, how and what president obama himself did as a candidate the first time and then as a candidate and president, man of government, the second time. >> right. well, and this goes with their

refusal of the secret document, the census, taking america back from a majority of those very people, these urban voters that paul ryan seems to be so afraid of, was probably not the way to a significant electoral victory. they're going to continue to think it's sort of a matter of changing that sheet music without understanding if you don't connect with e people on values and share their values, we're not likely to fall for it just because you're going to tell us what we want to hear. >> president obama joins fdr as the past presidents to win 50% of the popular vote twice and david corn, it seems to me that some credit for how this turned out should go to the winner as opposed to here's what the losers got wrong on their way to losing extraordinary candidate.

>> i don't know you're supporting malala, but i have to vote for the 47% video source. barack obama had a great plan, strategic plan on how to win the selection after the 2010 shellacking of the democrats at the elections and pulled it off with a tremendous amount of skill and a pretty fine touch. having said that, he was blessed to have mitt romney and coming across as a human being. so it was sort of worked on both sides and john mccain strikes me not surprising as a real dang hypocrite. he said in 2000, we shouldn't be

controlled by the religious right, then in 2008, threw that out the window when he ran for a senate seat two years ago, he didn't talk about immigration reform, so when he was put to the test, he catered and kowtowed to the right and now, he says oh, we have to do something about that. he has shown little courage and spine in trying to move his country in a more corrective direction. >> let's listen to a republican explanation for why they're not able to appeal. let's listen to american family association tim wield mann as to why they can't get more afternoon voters. >> i don't believe the republicans can reach out to african-americans because they're never going to vote for republicans. they always vote democrat. 90 plus percent and they always will. >> well, karen, there you have it. >> you know, i love when white

men tell us black folks what we will or won't do, but i think that speaks to the fundamental problem. if you start writing off 47% on an 18-state strategy, it's a lack of respect. you're saying to those voters, we don't care about you. your issues and you're not even showing up there to make your argument and part of the problem i think the republicans had, yes, mitt romney was a bad candidate, but i think you're fundamental promise is very important here. barack obama understands where the country is and who this country is. there are black folks who do vote republican, but if you never show up and make an argument, of course we're not going to vote for you.

>> thank you both for joining me tonight. >> sure thing. coming up, what ricky gervais, an atheist, has to teach bill o'reilly about the spirit of christmas. and it's official. chris christie is running. can he run to the white house? we'll turn to jonathan capehart to the answer for that one, coming up. ohan ] hello, piper. nice up-do. i see you're crunching numbers with a cup of joe... when you could be relaxing with a delicious gevalia. or as i like to say, a cup of johan. joe's a cubicle. johan is a corner office with a young, eager assistant... who looks like me. put johan on your spreadsheets. he'll watch your bottom line. [ johan ] gevalia. meet me in the coffee aisle. but with advair, i'm breathing better.

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it's amazing how appreciative people are when you tell them they could save a lot of money on their car insurance by switching to geico...they may even make you their best man. may i have the rings please? ah, helzberg diamonds. nice choice, mate. ...and now in the presence of these guests we join this loving couple. oh dear... geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. what is the first important year in the campaign? no, it is not 2015. it's 2013. find out why with jonathan capehart, coming up and the very first episode of our new game show, who is more christlike, tonight's contestants, bill o'reilly, pat robertson and

ricky gervais. who is more christlike is next.

with only 28 shopping day until christmas, for bill o'reilly, there are only 28 days left in the war on christmas. instead of talking about the

romney transition team, bill o'reilly, is returning this year as he does every year to the only war he's ever been brave enough to fight, the war on christmas. like all fake tough guy conservatives, bill sat out the war of his era, the vietnam war, but every year, he bravely fights on the side of christmas. in the war on christmas. a war in which the body count remains zero. the injury count remains zero and the risk of injury remains zero, which is precisely the kind of war bill o'reilly and other come conservativing are willing to fight. bravery is not a requirement for the troops in the war on christmas, but crazy sure is. >> well, christmas all over again. the grinch is trying to steal

our holiday. it's been so beautiful. the nation comes together, we sing christmas carols, we give gifts to each other. we have lighted trees. atheists don't like our happiness. they want you to be miserable so they want to steal your holiday away from you. >> does this guy look miserable? he used to be a christian when he was a kid, but he's been an atheist since he was 8 years old and miserable is not the first word that comes to mind when ever i see this face. in fact, if you're feeling miserable and you're lucky enough to stumble on ricky gervais on television, you have just hit upon the perfect mood adjuster. >> they don't want you to be happy. >> ricky gervais has been making

people happy since the original episode of the office. he wrote a piece called why i'm an atheist in the comment section, he was asked how do you plan on celebrating christmas? >> they want to steal your holiday away from you. >> atheist ricky gervais answer was eating and drinking too much with friends and family, celebrating life and remembering those that did, but can no longer. they are not looking down on me, but they live in my mind and heart more than they ever did probably. some, i was lucky enough to bump into on this planet of six billion people. othered shared much of my genetic material. one self-lessly did her best for me all her life. that's what mums do it for though.

not for love, reward, recognition. they create you from nothing. miracle, they do those every day. no big deal. they are not worshipped. they would give their life without the promise of heaven. they teach you everything they know, yet they are not declared profits and you only have one. ricky gervais' next line says i am crying as i write this. that is not a miserable atheist crying, that is a loving son crying with gratitude at the memory of his mother and the size of his perpetual debt to her. he goes on to write of some specific funny and deeply moving memories of his mother, which i hope you will read. we will link to his piece and the comments on our website. if he's been making you laugh

for years, you you him this one chance to make you cry reading his profound understanding of motherly love. he ends his answer about how an atheist like him will celebrate christmas by saying that's what special about christmas. it's when you visit or reminisce about the ones you love and reflect how lucky you are. i hope you are with your loved ones at this wonderful time of year. that's what will make it wonderful. peace to all mankind, christian, jew, muslim and atheist. >> atheists don't like our happiness. they don't want you to be happy. they want you to be miserable. they're miserable, so they want you to be miserable, so they want to steal your holiday away from you. >> and what was his last line about christmas? peace to all mankind, christian,

jew, muslim and atheist. that is something bill o'reilly and pat robertson and all their angry recruits in the war on christmas could never say. they could never say peace to all mankind and mean it. because that would of course include atheists and gay people and absolutely worst of all, gay atheists, married to gay atheists. bill o'reilly and pat robertson could never say ricky's simple christmas wish word for word. peace to all mankind, christian, jew, muslim and atheist. and that is why the happy atheist, ricky gervais, is actually more christlike than the reverend pat robertson.

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what are you waiting for? this is big news.

this is not just the re-election of a president. this is the rebuffing, if that's the right word, of the republicans. look, i think there are many lessons to be learned over this election. there was a not ideal candidate. it was a not ideal campaign, et cetera, et cetera. romney's economic programs reflected the concerns of wall street as opposed to the concerns of regular folk coming up. >> that was peggy noonan yesterday, still beating up on mitt romney and his campaign for losing the election. the person the republicans are not willing to attack publicly any way is new jersey governor, chris christie, who filed the

papers today to run for re-election in 2013 and is now the republican front-runner for the nomination in 2016. the chairman of the republican governors association was quick to issue this statement about christie's decision to seek a second term. christie exemplifies the type of leadership new jersey residents expect from their governor. jindal goes on to heap praise on christie. jindal was one of the prominent republican attackers of mitt romney after mitt romney's big loss. and a ppp poll done this month in new hampshire finds chris christie leads the pack for his party's nomination in 2013. he has 20%. condoleezza rice at 13%. jeb bush, 11.

paul ryan, 10%. joining me now is jonathan capehart. welcome to what i believe may be our very first 2016 republican presidential sweepstakes segment. we've seen some grumbling and saw some at the time, who were grumbling about chris christie and his partnership with president obama in dealing with the disaster in new jersey as a result of hurricane sandy. but you don't hear it now and the interesting thing is i didn't hear anyone of prominence quoted by name in criticizing christie that way. plenty of people including jindal, happy to criticize mitt romney by name. >> well, sure, after the election and remember when bobby jindal criticized mitt romney, it was after mitt romney had said something like really,

really dumb. also, the other thing about chris christie and particularly jindal in that statement he put out today about christie, these are now two governors who have had to deal with natural disasters. not only because they're republicans, governors, but they're also two men who have had to deal with mother nature wreaking havoc on their populations. so jindal looks at christie as sort of a kindred spirit. >> he was attacking romney for what he got caught saying. but let's listen to jindal talking about this whole issue of should chris christie be blamed for being helpful in some way to president obama's re-election.

>> i've got in interest in looking at these events through partisan, governor barbour did note, not talking about new jersey in particular, but the overall response to the storm, it may have caused 3% of the voters to switch their votes to the president, but i just don't think this is an appropriate place for partisan politics. >> when they look at the new hampshire pole with christie in front, i think we're going to hear a lot of respectful things. >> sure, because as that poll reflects, the governor is rather popular. not just in his home state, but among republicans. there was a clamber for governor christie to run himself. it was a governor who said i'm not ready to be president in a shocking moment of candleholder for someone who is considered presidential timber, so when you run in 2013 and if he wins, then

the clamber for him to get in the race in 2016 is only going to get louder. >> thanks, jonathan. hiding in history. let's play "hardball." ♪ good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let's start with this. republicans must think they own the white house. i say this as someone who has watched them before and after the election. from the heights of george f. will to the depths of glenn beck, they were predicting not just victory, but a glorious one in this election. what made them think so? the polls were tight but favoring president obama. what north star was guiding the gop convincing them that the white house would be back in their hands in january?